Cubs starting pitcher dominates, bats do enough, bullpen makes it really close. Ah. The rhythms have already been established.
Tyler Chatwood was on one tonight. He ran into trouble in the 7th as he emptied the tank, but for 6+ innings he was commanding everything, the cutter looked even better than last time out (if that’s possible), and he got 20(!) whiffs on the night, netting 11 strikeouts through 6.2. Just two walks and three hits. It was brilliant.
In that 7th, although he got a couple outs, he also gave up a couple meh singles and a 3-2 walk to load the bases. Thankfully Jeremy Jeffress came in to get a bouncer and end the threat. (Thus ends the positive bullpen comments.)
Even more thankfully, Kyle Schwarber hit a two-run homer in the 8th to give the Cubs a four-run lead heading into the 9th, because Kyle Ryan came in and gave up a two-run homer of his own after recording just one out. A double later and it was Rowan Wick in to clean things up. Even he allowed that run to score and put the tying run on base, so it’s always an adventure.